19 December 2007

Hitting the Road for the Holidays

Websites and blogs are filled with advice on how to travel by air. Rarely, though, do you read anything about road travel. Yet, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, at least 91 percent of holiday long-distance travel in the U.S. this year will be by car.

Before you pack up and hit the road, keep a few things in mind:

You can easily steer clear of traffic and accidents with up-to-date traffic reports for anywhere in the U.S., free, on traffic.com. You can also call the website’s toll-free number, 1-866-MY-TRAFC. I tried it yesterday. A computer voice prompted me to answer questions, and then computed the traffic for the road I asked for.

Scope out your potty breaks before you leave the house. thebathroomdiaries.com is a fun site that reviews public bathrooms in the U.S. and in over 120 countries. (Some of them look a little scary.) It will help you find bathrooms on your route that meet your standards.

A good way to stay awake and keep everyone in the car entertained is to listen to audio books. You can download them for free at librivox.org - and there are about 1,000 titles to choose from. Download them to your computer and then burn them to CD or copy to an MP3 player that you can hook up to your car stereo.

[Ed. Note: Bonnie Caton is AWAI Travel’s Member Liaison. For 93 more time-saving, money-making travel tips, click here. Find deals, ensure a smoother trip, and even find out how to get paid for your travels.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.